Park Fast loses bid to authorise its unauthorised carpark on Hutt St, the site of demolished cottages
Simeon Thomas-Wilson, City Editor, The Advertiser
March 4, 2019 9:36pm
Yesterday: CBD site unlawfully used as car park

A company’s bid to turn its unauthorised Adelaide CBD carpark into a legitimate venture has been knocked back.

Two 1880s bluestone cottages on the site, on the corner of Hutt and Ifould streets, were razed for the Opus apartment project that was later abandoned. The Advertiser yesterdayrevealed the site was being used as a carpark without approvals. This was despite multiple council warnings and the threat of fines.

At the panel meeting last night, Cr Anne Moran, who had reported the illegal use of the land to staff, said such carparks were “licences to print money”.

“That’s why they are so dangerous and so attractive to developers,” she said.

“It is something that we, the council, … really discourages because once they are there they are really hard to get rid of.”

The owners of the land, Proton Developments SA, will now have to secure it to prevent any unauthorised use.

Park Fast wanted the permit to run an ancillary carpark servicing the Calvary Wakefield Hospital on Wakefield St for up to two years.

A report to the panel said council staff were satisfied that was the intended use, despite the fact the hospital is to be decommissioned by mid-year for its move to a new building in Angas St.

Park Fast’s sole shareholder, director and secretary is Mr Lester, once known as Adelaide’s “carpark king” for issuing bogus fines mimicking official council ones.